Abstract
A cold-seep invertebrate assemblage consisting mainly of the large bivalve Lucinoma sp. is exposed at the Kuge Shrine and surrounding area in Shintomi Town, Koyu County, Miyazaki Prefecture, Kyushu Island, southwestern Japan. The outcrops with this assemblage are in the upper part of the Upper Pliocene Takanabe Formation of the Miyazaki Group. The Takanabe Formation exposed in Shintomi Town is a cyclical sequence of upward-coarsening and upward-fining sediments, which reflects sea-level change: the paleobathymetry inferred from molluscs implies a shallowing upward from 160 m-200 m to 50 m in water depth, followed by a deepening back to 160 m-200 m. The cold-seep assemblage occurs in the coarsest (muddy sandstone) and bathymetrically shallowest (50 m in water depth) horizon, an outer shelf environment near the average storm-wave base, in this shallowing and deepening cycle. The cold-seep assemblage around the Kuge Shrine occurs sporadically in area of about 100 m in a north-south direction and about 60 m in an east-west direction, and is about 12 m in stratigraphic thickness. Many articulated and disarticulated bivalves are preserved with their commissure planes parallel to bedding, but some articulated bivalves are oriented normal to it, in the characteristic life position of lucinids. The muddy sandstone containing this assemblage is cemented strongly to weakly by authigenic carbonate depleted greatly in 13C (δ13C = −30.69‰ to −53.21‰ vs. PDB), which suggests the influence of methane seepage. The preserved life positions of the lucinid bivalves and the carbon isotope ratios of the associated carbonates suggest that this assemblage is autochthonous. The bedding-parallel orientation of many shells is inferred to have resulted from in-situ reworking by storm-induced waves and currents that are prevalent in such a shallow environment.
